tM 


*.•**---*  A 


*       —      a       »■» 


u^K,^    (s^tr^s-   sJscj-i*-    0Sl-^,   Qw**-  ■ 


04-*.     ^„-.*j  A^-^-w_  (*V^V. 


f£ttri~~j 


£2~i 


i^S/T&e^mif&s 


SELECTIONS 


FROM   THE   WORKS    OF 


ABRAHAM  LINCOLN 


A  SOUVENIR  OF  THE  SEVENTH  ANNUAL 
LINCOLN  DINNER  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN 
CLUB  OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW-YORK,  AT 
DELMONICO'S,  FEBRUARY  n,  1893  <©><©»<©> 


NEW-YORK 

COMPILED  BY  THE  COMMITTEE 

1893 


COMMITTEE   ON    LINCOLN   DINNER, 

1893. 


CHARLES    H.  DENISON, 

CHAIRMAN. 

E.  A.   McALPIN. 
A.  B.  HUMPHREY. 
JOSEPH    ULLMAN, 

TREASURER. 

HENRY   MELVILLE, 

SECRETARY. 

JAMES   A.  BLANCHARD, 

EX-OFFICIO. 


773. 1 L  L>3  i,*jc 

KI813 

OFFICERS  OF  THE  REPUBLICAN  CLUB 

OF  THE  CITY  OF  NEW-YORK, 

FOR  THE  YEAR  1893. 


PRESIDENT, 

JOHN    S.   SMITH. 


FIRST  VICE-PRESIDENT, 

ARTHUR   L.  MERRIAM. 

SECOND  VICE-PRESIDENT, 

JAMES    S.   LEHMAIER. 

THIRD  VICE-PRESIDENT, 

WILLIAM    LEARY. 

CORRESPONDING   SECRETARY, 

HENRY   B.  JOHNSON. 

RECORDING   SECRETARY, 

FRANCIS   E.   LAIMBEER. 

TREASURER, 

ALFRED    B.  PRICE. 


LIST    OF    EXTRACTS 

PAGE 

From    Speech   at   Peoria,   Oct.  16, 

1854 7 

From  Speech  at  Springfield,  June 
26,  1857  (Argument  on  the  Dred 
Scott  Decision) 15 

From   Speech  at  Springfield,  June 

l6>  1858 33 

From  Speech  at  Beardstown,  III., 

Aug.  12,  1858 36 

From     Speech     at    Edwardsville, 

III.,  Sept.  13,  1858    ......     44 

From    Letter  to    Mr.  Henry   As- 

bury,  Nov.  19, 1858 55 

From      Letter     to      Pierce     and 

Others,  April  6,  1859 56 

3 


LIST    OF    EXTRACTS 

PAGE 

Peroration  of  Address  at  Cooper 

Institute,  Feb.  27,  i860     ...     60 

Farewell  Address  at  the  Rail- 
road Station,  Springfield,  Feb. 
11,  1861 63 

Closing  Sections  of  First  Inau- 
gural Address,  Washington, 
March  4,  1861 67 

From  Message  to   Congress,  Dec. 

3,  1861  (Labor  and  Capital)     .    .     77 

From  Letter  to  the  Secretary  of 

State,  June  28,  1862 85 

Letter  to  Horace   Greeley,  Aug. 

22,  1862 86 

Closing  Paragraph  of  Message  to 

Congress,  Dec.  1,  1862    ....     90 

Letter    to    the    Working-men    of 

Manchester,  Eng.,  Jan.  19,  1863     92 

Closing  Paragraph  of  Letter  to 
James  C.  Conkling,  Aug.  26, 
1863 101 

4 


LIST    OF    EXTRACTS 

PAGE 

From      Letter     to      Drake     and 

Others,  Oct.  5,  1863 103 

Speech  at  Gettysburg,  Pa.,  Nov.  19, 

1863 107 

Second  Inaugural  Address,  March 

4,  1865 112 


Portraits  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  besides  the  frontispiece, 
are  inserted  opposite  pages  12,  26,  38,  50, 
64,  78,  92,  108. 


IA 


Lincoln's  Birthplace. 


From  Speech  at  Peoria,  October  16,  1854. 
'  HIS   declared    indifference, 


H  but,  as  I  must  think,  covert 


zeal  for  the  spread  of  slavery,  I 
cannot  but  hate.  I  hate  it  because 
of  the  monstrous  injustice  of  slav- 
ery itself.  I  hate  it  because  it  de- 
prives our  republican  example  of 
its  just  influence  in  the  world ; 
enables  the  enemies  of  free  insti- 
tutions with  plausibility  to  taunt 
us  as  hypocrites ;  causes  the  real 
friends  of  freedom  to  doubt  our 
sincerity ;  and  especially   because 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

it  forces  so  many  really  good  men 
among  ourselves  into  an  open  war 
with  the  very  fundamental  princi- 
ples of  civil  liberty,  criticizing  the 
Declaration  of  Independence,  and 
insisting  that  there  is  no  right 
principle  of  action  but  self-interest. 

•  •••••• 

The  doctrine  of  self-government 
is  right, — absolutely  and  eternally 
right, — but  it  has  no  just  applica- 
tion as  here  attempted.  Or  per- 
haps I  should  rather  say  that 
whether  it  has  such  just  applica- 
tion depends  upon  whether  a  ne- 
gro is  not,  or  is,  a  man.  If  he  is 
not  a  man,  in  that  case  he  who  is  a 
man  may  as  a  matter  of  self-gov- 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ernment  do  just  what  he  pleases 
with  him.  But  if  the  negro  is  a 
man,  is  it  not  to  that  extent  a 
total  destruction  of  self-govern- 
ment to  say  that  he  too  shall  not 
govern  himself?  When  the  white 
man  governs  himself,  that  is  self- 
government;  but  when  he  governs 
himself  and  also  governs  another 
man,  that  is  more  than  self-gov- 
ernment—  that  is  despotism. 

•  •••••• 

What  I  do  say  is,  that  no  man  is 
good  enough  to  govern  another 
man  without  that  other's  consent. 

•  •••••• 

Slavery  is  founded  in  the  sel- 
fishness of  man's  nature  —  oppo- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

sition  to  it,  in  his  love  of  justice. 
These  principles  are  an  eternal 
antagonism ;  and  when  brought 
into  collision  so  fiercely  as  slavery 
extension  brings  them,  shocks  and 
throes  and  convulsions  must  cease- 
lessly follow.  Repeal  the  Missouri 
Compromise  —  repeal  all  compro- 
mise— repeal  the  Declaration  of 
Independence — repeal  all  past 
history — still   you    cannot   repeal 

human  nature. 
•  •••••• 

Little  by  little,  but  steadily  as 
man's  march  to  the  grave,  we  have 
been  giving  up  the  old  for  the  new 
faith.  Near  eighty  years  ago  we 
began   by  declaring  that  all  men 


IO 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

are  created  equal ;  but  now  from 
that  beginning  we  have  run  down 
to  the  other  declaration  that  for 
some  men  to  enslave  others  is  a 
"  sacred  right  of  self-government." 
These  principles  cannot  stand  to- 
gether. They  are  as  opposite  as 
God  and  Mammon. 

•  •••••• 

Our  republican  robe  is  soiled 
and  trailed  in  the  dust.  Let  us  re- 
purify  it.  Let  us  turn  and  wash  it 
white  in  the  spirit  if  not  the  blood, 
of  the  Revolution.  Let  us  turn 
slavery  from  its  claims  of  ''moral 
right"  back  upon  its  existing  legal 
rights,  and  its  arguments  of  "  ne- 
cessity."    Let  us  return  it  to  the 


ir 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

position  our  fathers  gave  it,  and 
there  let  it  rest  in  peace.  Let  us 
readopt  the  Declaration  of  Inde- 
pendence, and  the  practices  and 
policy  which  harmonize  with  it. 
Let  North  and  South — let  all 
Americans — let  all  lovers  of  liber- 
ty everywhere — join  in  the  great 
and  good  work.  If  we  do  this,  we 
shall  not  only  have  saved  the 
Union,  but  we  shall  have  so  saved 
it  as  to  make  and  to  keep  it  forever 
worthy  of  the  saving. 

We  shall  have  so  saved  it  that 
the  succeeding  millions  of  free, 
happy  people,  the  world  over, 
shall  rise  up  and  call  us  blessed 
to  the  latest  generations. 


12 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


Argument  on  the  Dred  Scott  Decision. 

From  Speech  at  Springfield, 

June  26,  1857. 

ND  now,  as  to  the  Dred 
Scott  decision.  That  de- 
cision declares  two  propositions  — 
first,  that  a  negro  cannot  sue  in 
the  United  States  courts ;  and 
secondly,  that  Congress  cannot 
prohibit  slavery  in  the  Territories. 
It  was  made  by  a  divided  court — 
dividing  differently  on  the  differ- 
ent points.  Judge  Douglas  does 
not  discuss  the  merits  of  the  deci- 
sion, and  in  that  respect  I  shall  fol- 

15 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

low  his  example,  believing  I  could 
no  more  improve  on  McLean  and 
Curtis  than   he   could  on  Taney. 

He  denounces  all  who  question 
the  correctness  of  that  decision, 
as  offering  violent  resistance  to  it. 
But  who  resists  it?  Who  has,  in 
spite  of  the  decision,  declared  Dred 
Scott  free,  and  resisted  the  author- 
ity of  his  master  over  him  ?  Judi- 
cial decisions  have  two  uses — 
first,  to  absolutely  determine  the 
case  decided ;  and  secondly,  to 
indicate  to  the  public  how  other 
similar  cases  will  be  decided  when 
they  arise. 

For  the  latter  use  they  are  called 
''precedents"  and  "authorities." 


16 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

We  believe  as  much  as  Judge 
Douglas  (perhaps  more)  in  obe- 
dience to  and  respect  for  the 
judicial  department  of  govern- 
ment. 

We  think  its  decisions  on  con- 
stitutional questions,  when  fully 
settled,  should  control  not  only  the 
particular  cases  decided,  but  the 
general  policy  of  the  country,  sub- 
ject to  be  disturbed  only  by 
amendments  of  the  Constitution  as 
provided  in  that  instrument  itself. 
More  than  this  would  be  revolution. 
But  we  think  the  Dred  Scott  de- 
cision is  erroneous.  We  know 
the  court  that  made  it  has  often 
overruled   its  own   decisions,    and 

2  17 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

we  shall  do  what  we  can  to  have  it 
overrule  this.  We  offer  no  resis- 
tance to  it.  Judicial  decisions  are 
of  greater  or  less  authority  as  pre- 
cedents according  to  circumstances. 
That  this  should  be  so,  accords 
both  with  common  sense  and  the 
customary  understanding  of  the 
legal  profession.  If  this  important 
decision  had  been  made  by  the 
unanimous  concurrence  of  the 
judges,  and  without  any  apparent 
partizan  bias,  and  in  accordance 
with  legal  public  expectation  and 
with  the  steady  practice  of  the 
departments  throughout  our  his- 
tory, and  had  been  in  no  part  based 
on  assumed  historical  facts  which 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

are  not  really  true ;  or,  if  wanting 
in  some  of  these,  it  had  been  before 
the  court  more  than  once,  and  had 
there  been  affirmed  and  reaffirmed 
through  a  course  of  years,  it  then 
might  be,  perhaps  would  be,  fac- 
tious, nay,  even  revolutionary,  not 
to  acquiesce  in  it  as  a  precedent. 
But  when,  as  is  true,  we  find  it 
wanting  in  all  these  claims  to  the 
public  confidence,  it  is  not  resis- 
tance, it  is  not  factious,  it  is  not 
even  disrespectful,  to  treat  it  as  not 
having  yet  quite  established  a  set- 
tled doctrine  for  the  country. 

•  •••••• 

The  Chief  Justice  does  not  direct- 
ly assert,  but  plainly  assumes  as  a 

19 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

fact  that  the  public  estimate  of  the 
black  man  is  more  favorable  now 
than  it  was  in  the  days  of  the  Rev- 
olution. This  assumption  is  a 
mistake.  In  some  trifling  particu- 
lars the  condition  of  that  race  has 
been  ameliorated  ;  but  as  a  whole, 
in  this  country,  the  change  be- 
tween then  and  now  is  decidedly 
the  other  way;  and  their  ultimate 
destiny  has  never  appeared  so 
hopeless  as  in  the  last  three  or 
four  years.  In  two  of  the  five 
States — New  Jersey  and  North 
Carolina — that  then  eave  the  free 
negro  the  right  of  voting,  the  right 
has  since  been  taken  away ;  and 
in    a    third  —  New-York  —  it    has 


20 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

been  greatly  abridged  ;  while  it 
has  not  been  extended,  so  far  as 
I  know,  to  a  single  additional 
State,  though  the  number  of  the 
States  has  more  than  doubled. 

In  those  days,  as  I  understand, 
masters  could,  at  their  own  plea- 
sure, emancipate  their  slaves  ;  but 
since  then,  such  legal  restraints 
have  been  made  upon  emanci- 
pation as  to  amount  almost  to 
prohibition. 

In  those  days,  legislatures  held 
the  unquestioned  power  to  abolish 
slavery  in  their  respective  States; 
but  now  it  is  becoming  quite  fash- 
ionable for  State  Constitutions  to 
withhold  that  power  from  the  legis- 


2A  21 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

latures.  In  those  days,  by  com- 
mon consent,  the  spread  of  the 
black  man's  bondage  to  the  new 
countries  was  prohibited  ;  but  now 
Congress  decides  that  it  will  not 
continue  the  prohibition,  and  the 
Supreme  Court  decides  that  it 
could  not  if  it  would.  In  those 
days  our  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence was  held  sacred  by  all,  and 
thought  to  include  all ;  but  now, 
to  aid  in  making  the  bondage  of 
the  negro  universal  and  eternal, 
it  is  assailed,  and  sneered  at,  and 
construed,  and  hawked  at,  and  torn, 
till  if  its  framers  could  rise  from 
their  graves  they  could  not  at  all 
recognize  it. 

22 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

All  the  powers  of  earth  seem 
rapidly  combining  against  him  — 
Mammon  is  after  him,  ambition 
follows,  philosophy  follows,  and 
the  theology  of  the  day  is  fast 
joining  the  cry.  They  have  him 
in  his  prison  house,  they  have 
searched  his  person  and  left  no  pry- 
ing instrument  with  him.  One  after 
another  they  have  closed  the 
heavy  iron  doors  upon  him  ;  and 
now  they  have  him,  as  it  were, 
bolted  in  with  a  lock  of  a  hundred 
keys,  which  can  never  be  un- 
locked without  the  concurrence  of 
every  key — the  keys  in  the  hands 
of  a  hundred  different  men,  and 
they  scattered  to   a   hundred   dif- 


23 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

ferent  and  distant  places ;  and 
they  stand  musing  as  to  what  in- 
vention, in  all  the  dominions  of 
mind  and  matter,  can  be  produced 
to  make  the  impossibility  of  his 
escape  more  complete  than  it  is. 
There  is  a  natural  disgust  in 
the  minds  of  nearly  all  white  peo- 
ple at  the  idea  of  an  indiscriminate 
amalgamation  of  the  white  and 
black  races;  and  Judge  Douglas 
evidently  is  basing  his  chief  hope 
upon  the  chances  of  his  being  able 
to  appropriate  the  benefit  of  this 
disgust  to  himself.  If  he  can,  by 
much  drumming  and  repeating, 
fasten  the  odium  of  that  idea  upon 

his  adversaries,  he  thinks  he  can 

24 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

struggle  through  the  storm.  He 
therefore  clings  to  this  hope  as  a 
drowning  man  to  the  last  plank. 

He  makes  an  occasion  for  luof- 
ging  it  in,  from  the  opposition  to 
the  Dred  Scott  decision.  He  finds 
the  Republicans  insisting  that  the 
Declaration  of  Independence  in- 
cludes all  men,  black  as  well  as 
white,  and  forthwith  he  boldly  de- 
nies  that  it  includes  negroes  at 
all,  and  proceeds  to  argue  gravely 
that  all  who  contend  it  does,  do  so 
only  because  they  want  to  vote, 
and  eat,  and  sleep,  and  marry  with 
negroes.  He  will  have  it  that  they 
cannot  be  consistent  else.  Now, 
I   protest  against   the    counterfeit 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

logic  which  concludes  that  because 
I  do  not  want  a  black  woman  for  a 
slave,  I  must  necessarily  want  her 
for  a  wife.  I  need  not  have  her  for 
either.  I  can  just  leave  her  alone. 
In  some  respects  she  certainly  is 
not  my  equal ;  but  in  her  natural 
right  to  eat  the  bread  she  earns 
with  her  own  hands,  without  ask- 
ing leave  of  any  one  else,  she  is  my 
equal  and  the  equal  of  all  others. 

Chief  Justice  Taney,  in  his  opin- 
ion in  the  Dred  Scott  case,  admits 
that  the  language  of  the  Declara- 
tion is  broad  enough  to  include  the 
whole  human  family ;  but  he  and 
Judge    Douglas    argue    that    the 

authors  of  that  instrument  did  not 

26 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

intend  to  include  negroes  by  the 
fact  that  they  did  not  at  once  actu- 
ally place  them  on  an  equality  with 
the  whites.  Now,  this  grave  argu- 
ment comes  to  just  nothing  at  all 
by  the  other  fact  that  they  did  not 
at  once  or  ever  afterward  actually 
place  all  white  people  on  an  equal- 
ity with  one  another.  And  this  is 
the  staple  argument  of  both  the 
Chief  Justice  and  the  Senator  for 
doing  this  obvious  violence  to  the 
plain,  unmistakable  language  of 
the  Declaration. 

I  think  the  authors  of  that  no- 
table instrument  intended  to  in- 
clude all  men ;    but  they  did  not 

intend  to  declare  all  men  equal  in 

29 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

all  respects.  They  did  not  mean 
to  say  all  were  equal  in  color,  size, 
intellect,  moral  development,  or 
social  capacity.  They  defined 
with  tolerable  distinctness  in  what 
respects  they  did  consider  all  men 
created  equal — equal  with  "cer- 
tain inalienable  rights,  among 
which  are  life,  liberty,  and  the 
pursuit  of  happiness."  This  they 
said,  and  this  they  meant.  They 
did  not  mean  to  assert  the  obvious 
untruth  that  all  were  then  actually 
enjoying  that  equality,  nor  yet 
that  they  were  about  to  confer  it 
immediately  upon  them.  In  fact, 
they    had    no     power    to    confer 

such  a  boon.     They  meant  simply 

3o 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

to  declare  the  right,  so  that  the 
enforcement  of  it  might  follow  as 
fast  as  circumstances  should  per- 
mit. They  meant  to  set  up  a 
standard  maxim  for  free  society, 
which  should  be  familiar  to  all, 
and  revered  by  all  ;  constantly 
looked  to,  constantly  labored  for, 
and  even  though  never  perfectly 
attained,  constantly  approximated, 
and  thereby  constantly  spreading 
and  deepening  its  influence  and 
augmenting  the  happiness  and 
value  of  life  to  all  people  of  all 
colors  everywhere.  The  asser- 
tion that  "all  men  are  created 
equal"  was  of  no  practical  use  in 

affecting  our  separation  from  Great 

31 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

Britain  ;  and  it  was  placed  in  the 
Declaration  not  for  that,  but  for 
future  use.  Its  authors  meant  it 
to  be,  as,  thank  God,  it  is  now 
proving-  itself,  a  stumbling-block 
to  all  those  who  in  after  times 
might  seek  to  turn  a  free  people 
back  into  the  hateful  paths  of  des- 
potism. They  knew  the  proneness 
of  prosperity  to  breed  tyrants  ;  and 
they  meant  when  such  should  re- 
appear in  this  fair  land  and  com- 
mence their  vocation,  they  should 
find  left  for  them  at  least  one  hard 
nut  to  crack. 


32 


OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


From  Speech  at  Springfield,  June  16,  1858. 

F  we  could  first  know  where 
we  are  and  whither  we  are 
tending,  we  could  better  judge 
what  to  do,  and  how  to  do  it. 
We  are  now  far  into  the  fifth 
year  since  a  policy  was  initiated 
with  the  avowed  object  and  confi- 
dent promise  of  putting  an  end 
to  slavery  agitation.  Under  the 
operation  of  that  policy,  that  agi- 
tation   has    not   only  not    ceased, 

but    has    constantly    augmented. 

3  33 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

In  my  opinion  it  will  not  cease 
until  a  crisis  shall  have  been 
reached  and  passed.  "A  house 
divided  against  itself  cannot 
stand."  I  believe  this  Govern- 
ment cannot  endure  permanently 
half  slave  and  half  free.  I  do  not 
expect  the  Union  to  be  dissolved 
—  I  do  not  expect  the  house  to 
fall  —  but  I  do  expect  it  will  cease 
to  be  divided.  It  will  become 
all  one  thing  or  all  the  other. 
Either  the  opponents  of  slavery 
will  arrest  the  further  spread  of 
it,  and  place  it  where  the  public 
mind  shall  rest  in  the  belief  that 
it  is  in  course  of  ultimate  extinc- 
tion ;   or  its  advocates  will  push  it 


34 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

forward  till  it  shall  become  alike 
lawful  in  all  the  States,  old  as 
well  as  new,  North  as  well  as 
South. 


35 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


From  Speech  at  Beardstown,  Illinois, 
August  12,  1858. 


HESE  communities,  by  their 
y|l|8§  representatives  in  old  In- 
dependence Hall,  said  to  the  whole 
race  of  men:  "We  hold  these 
truths  to  be  self-evident :  that  all 
men  are  created  equal;  that  they 
are  endowed  by  their  Creator 
with  certain  inalienable  rights; 
that  among  these  are  life,  liberty, 
and  the  pursuit  of  happiness." 
This  was  their  majestic  interpre- 
tation    of    the    economy    of    the 


36 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

universe.  This  was  their  lofty f 
and  wise,  and  noble  understand- 
ing of  the  justice  of  the  Creator 
to  his  creatures.  Yes,  gentle- 
men, to  all  his  creatures,  to  the 
whole  great  family  of  man.  In 
their  enlightened  belief,  nothing 
stamped  with  the  divine  image 
and  likeness  was  sent  into  the 
world  to  be  trodden  on  and  de- 
graded, and  imbruted  by  its  fel- 
lows. They  grasped  not  only  the 
whole  race  of  man  then  living,  but 
they  reached  forward  and  seized 
upon  the  farthest  posterity.  They 
erected  a  beacon  to  guide  their 
children,  and  their  children's  chil- 
dren,   and   the   countless    myriads 


3A  37 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

who  should  inhabit  the  earth  in 
other  a^es.  Wise  statesmen  as 
they  were,  they  knew  the  ten- 
dency of  prosperity  to  breed  ty- 
rants, and  so  they  established 
these  great  self-evident  truths, 
that  when  in  the  distant  future 
some  man,  some  faction,  some 
interest,  should  set  up  the  doc- 
trine that  none  but  rich  men,  none 
but  white  men,  or  none  but  An- 
glo-Saxon white  men,  were  en- 
titled to  life,  liberty,  and  the  pur- 
suit of  happiness,  their  posterity 
might  look  up  again  to  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence  and  take 
courage  to  renew  the  battle  which 

their  fathers  began,  so  that  truth 

38 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  justice  and  mercy  and  all  the 
humane  and  Christian  virtues 
might  not  be  extinguished  from 
the  land;  so  that  no  man  would 
hereafter  dare  to  limit  and  circum- 
scribe the  great  principles  on 
which  the  temple  of  liberty  was 
being  built. 

Now,  my  countrymen,  if  you 
have  been  taught  doctrines  con- 
flicting with  the  great  landmarks 
of  the  Declaration  of  Indepen- 
dence; if  you  have  listened  to 
suggestions  which  would  take 
away  from  its  grandeur  and  muti- 
late the  fair  symmetry  of  its  pro- 
portions; if  you  have  been  in- 
clined to  believe  that  all  men  are 

41 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

not  created  equal  in  those  inalien- 
able rights  enumerated  by  our 
chart  of  liberty :  let  me  entreat 
you  to  come  back.  Return  to  the 
fountain  whose  waters  spring 
close  by  the  blood  of  the  Revolu- 
tion. Think  nothing  of  me, — take 
no  thought  for  the  political  fate  of 
any  man  whomsoever, — but  come 
back  to  the  truths  that  are  in 
the  Declaration  of  Independence. 
You  may  do  anything  with  me 
you  choose,  if  you  will  but  heed 
these  sacred  principles.  You  may 
not  only  defeat  me  for  the  Senate, 
but  you  may  take  me  and  put  me 
to  death.  While  pretending  no 
indifference    to   earthly  honors,    I 


42 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

do  claim  to  be  actuated  in  this 
contest  by  something  higher  than 
an  anxiety  for  office.  I  charge 
you  to  drop  every  paltry  and  in- 
significant thought  for  any  man's 
success.  It  is  nothing;  I  am  no- 
thing ;  Judge  Douglas  is  nothing. 
But  do  not  destroy  that  immortal 
emblem  of  humanity  —  the  Dec- 
laration of  Independence. 


43 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


From  Speech  at  Edwardsville,  Illinois, 
September  13,  1858. 

HE  difference  between  the 
Republican  and  the  Demo- 
cratic parties  on  the  leading  issues 
of  this  contest,  as  I  understand  it, 
is  that  the  former  consider  slavery 
amoral,  social,  and  political  wrong, 
while  the  latter  do  not  consider  it 
either  a  moral,  a  social,  or  a  political 
wrong  ;  and  the  action  of  each,  as 
respects  the  growth  of  the  country  ? 
and  the  expansion  of  our  popula- 
tion, is  squared  to  meet  these  views. 

44 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

I  will  not  affirm  that  the  Dem- 
ocratic party  consider  slavery 
morally,  socially,  and  politically 
right,  though  their  tendency  to 
that  view  has,  in  my  opinion,  been 
constant  and  unmistakable  for  the 
past  five  years.  I  prefer  to  take,  as 
the  accepted  maxim  of  the  party, 
the  idea  put  forth  by  Judge  Doug- 
las, that  he  "  don't  care  whether 
slavery  is  voted  down  or  voted  up." 

I  am  quite  willing  to  believe  that 
many  Democrats  would  prefer  that 
slavery  should  be  always  voted 
down,  and  I  know  that  some  prefer 
that  it  be  always  "  voted  up  "  ;  but  I 
have  a  right  to  insist  that  their  ac- 
tion, especially  if  it  be  their  constant 


45 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

action,  shall  determine  their  ideas 
and  preferences  on  this  subject. 

Every  measure  of  the  Demo- 
cratic party  of  late  years,  bearing 
directly  or  indirectly  on  the  slavery 
question,  has  corresponded  with 
this  notion  of  utter  indifference, 
whether  slaverv  or  freedom  shall 
outrun  in  the  race  of  empire  across 
to  the  Pacific  —  every  measure,  I 
say,  up  to  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
where,  it  seems  to  me,  the  idea  is 
boldly  suggested  that  slavery  is  bet- 
ter than  freedom.  The  Republican 
party,  on  the  contrary,  hold  that 
this  government  was  instituted  to 
secure   the  blessings   of  freedom, 

and  that  slavery  is  an  unqualified 

46 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

evil  to  the  negro,  to  the  white  man, 
to  the  soil,  and  to  the  State.  Re- 
garding it  as  an  evil,  they  will  not 
molest  it  in  the  States  where  it 
exists;  they  will  not  overlook  the 
constitutional  guards  which  our 
fathers  placed  around  it ;  they  will 
do  nothing  that  can  give  proper 
offense  to  those  who  hold  slaves 
by  legal  sanction  ;  but  they  will  use 
every  constitutional  method  to  pre- 
vent the  evil  from  becoming  larger 
and  involving  more  negroes,  more 
white  men,  more  soil,  and  more 
States  in  its  deplorable  conse- 
quences. They  will,  if  possible, 
place  it  where  the  public  mind  shall 
rest  in  the  belief  that  it  is  in  course 


47 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

of  ultimate  peaceable  extinction  in 
God's  own  good  time.  And  to  this 
end  they  will,  if  possible,  restore 
the  government  to  the  policy  of  the 
fathers — the  policy  of  preserving 
the  new  Territories  from  the  bane- 
ful influence  of  human  bondage,  as 
the  northwestern  Territories  were 
sought  to  be  preserved  by  the  Or- 
dinance of  1787,  and  the  Com- 
promise Act  of  1820.  They  will 
oppose,  in  all  its  length  and 
breadth,  the  modern  Democratic 
idea,  that  slavery  is  as  good  as 
freedom,  and  ought  to  have  room 
for  expansion  all  over  the  conti- 
nent,   if  people   can   be  found   to 

carry   it.      All,    or    nearly    all,    of 

48 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

Judge  Douglas's  arguments  are 
logical,  if  you  admit  that  slavery  is 
as  good  and  as  right  as  freedom, 
and  not  one  of  them  is  worth  a  rush 
if  you  deny  it.  This  is  the  differ- 
ence, as  I  understand  it,  between 
the  Republican  and  Democratic 
parties. 

•  •  •  •  •  • 

My  friends,  I  have  endeavored 
to  show  you  the  logical  conse- 
quences of  the  Dred  Scott  decision, 
which  holds  that  the  people  of  a 
Territory  cannot  prevent  the  estab- 
lishment of  slavery  in  their  midst. 

I  have  stated  what  cannot  be 
gainsaid,  that  the  grounds  upon 
which    this   decision  is  made    are 

4  49 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

equally  applicable  to  the  free 
States  as  to  the  free  Territories, 
and  that  the  peculiar  reasons  put 
forth  by  Judge  Douglas  for  indors- 
ing this  decision  commit  him,  in 
advance,  to  the  next  decision,  and 
to  all  other  decisions  coming  from 
the  same  source.  And  when,  by 
all  these  means,  you  have  sue- 
ceeded  in  dehumanizing  the  negro; 
when  you  have  put  him  down  and 
made  it  impossible  for  him  to  be 
but  as  the  beasts  of  the  held  ;  when 
you  have  extinguished  his  soul  in 
this  world  and  placed  him  where 
the  ray  of  hope  is  blown  out  as  in 
the  darkness  of  the  damned,  are 
you  quite  sure  that  the  demon  you 


50 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

have  roused  will  not  turn  and  rend 
you  ?  What  constitutes  the  bul- 
wark of  our  own  liberty  and  inde- 
pendence? It  is  not  our  frown- 
ing battlements,  our  bristling  sea- 
coasts,  our  army  and  our  navy. 

These  are  not  our  reliance 
against  tyranny.  All  of  those 
may  be  turned  against  us  with- 
out making  us  weaker  for  the 
struggle. 

Our  reliance  is  in  the  love  of 
liberty  which  God  has  planted 
in  us.  Our  defense  is  in  the  spirit 
which  prizes  liberty  as  the  heritage 
of  all  men,  in  all  lands,  everywhere. 

Destroy  this  spirit,  and  you  have 
planted  the  seeds  of  despotism  at 


4A  53 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

your  own  doors.  Familiarize  your- 
selves with  the  chains  of  bondage, 
and  you  prepare  your  own  limbs  to 
wear  them.  Accustomed  to  tram- 
ple on  the  rights  of  others,  you  have 
lost  the  genius  of  your  own  inde- 
pendence, and  become  the  fit  sub- 
jects of  the  first  cunning  tyrant 
who  rises  among  you.  And  let 
me  tell  you,  that  all  these  things 
are  prepared  for  you  by  the  teach- 
ings of  history,  if  the  elections  shall 
promise  that  the  next  Dred  Scott 
decision  and  all  future  decisions 
will  be  quietly  acquiesced  in  by  the 
people. 


54 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


From  Letter  to  Mr.  Henry  Asbury, 
November  19,  1858. 

HE  fight  must  goon.  The 
Jj  cause  of  civil  liberty  must 
not  be  surrendered  at  the  end  of 
one,  or  even  one  hundred,  defeats. 


55 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


From  Letter  to  Pierce  and  others, 
April  6,  1859. 

L  UT,  soberly,  it  is  now  no 
child's  play  to  save  the 
principles  of  Jefferson  from  total 
overthrow  in  this  nation.  One 
would  state  with  great  confidence 
that  he  could  convince  any  sane 
child  that  the  simpler  propositions 
of  Euclid  are  true;  but  neverthe- 
less he  would  fail,  utterly,  with 
one  who  should  deny  the  defini- 
tions and  axioms.     The  principles 

of  Jefferson  are  the  definitions  and 

56 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINXOLN. 

axioms  of  free  society.  And  yet 
they  are  denied  and  evaded,  with 
no  small  show  of  success.  One 
dashingly  calls  them  "glittering 
generalities."  Another  bluntly 
calls  them  "self-evident  lies." 
And  others  insidiously  argue  that 
they  apply  only  to  "superior 
races."  These  expressions,  dif- 
fering in  form,  are  identical  in 
object  and  effect — the  supplant- 
ing the  principles  of  free  govern- 
ment, and  restoring  those  of 
classification,  caste,  and  legiti- 
macy. They  would  delight  a 
convocation  of  crowned  heads 
plotting  against  the  people.  They 
are    the    vanguard  —  the    miners 

57 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

and  sappers  of  returning  despot- 
ism. We  must  repulse  them,  or 
they  will  subjugate  us.  This  is 
a  world  of  compensation;  and  he 
who  would  be  no  slave  must  con- 
sent to  have  no  slave.  Those 
who  deny  freedom  to  others  de- 
serve it  not  for  themselves,  and, 
under  a  just  God,  cannot  long 
retain  it. 

All  honor  to  Jefferson  —  to  the 
man  who,  in  the  concrete  pressure 
of  a  struggle  for  national  inde- 
pendence by  a  single  people,  had 
the  coolness,  forecast,  and  capacity 
to  introduce  into  a  merely  revo- 
lutionary    document    an    abstract 

truth,   applicable  to   all   men   and 

58 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

all  times,  and  so  to  embalm  it 
there  that  to-day  and  in  all  coming 
days  it  shall  be  a  rebuke  and  a 
stumbling-block  to  the  very  har- 
bingers of  reappearing  tyranny 
and  oppression. 


59 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


Peroration  of  Address  at  Cooper  Institute, 
February  27,  i860. 

RONG  as  we  think  slavery 
is,  we  can  yet  afford  to  let 
it  alone  where  it  is,  because  that 
much  is  due  to  the  necessity  aris- 
ing from  its  actual  presence  in  the 
nation ;  but  can  we,  while  our 
votes  will  prevent  it,  allow  it  to 
spread  into  the  National  Terri- 
tories, and  to  overrun  us  here  in 
the  Free  States?  If  our  sense 
of  duty  forbids  this,    then    let  us 

stand  by  our  duty,  fearlessly  and 

60 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

effectively.  Let  us  be  diverted  by 
none  of  those  sophistical  contri- 
vances wherewith  we  are  so  in- 
dustriously plied  and  belabored, — 
contrivances  such  as  groping  for 
some  middle  ground  between  the 
right  and  the  wrong,  vain  as  the 
search  for  a  man  who  should  be 
neither  a  living  man  nor  a  dead 
man ;  such  as  a  policy  of  "  don't 
care"  on  a  question  about  which 
all  true  men  do  care ;  such  as 
Union  appeals  beseeching  true 
Union  men  to  yield  to  Disunion- 
ists,  reversing  the  divine  rule,  and 
calling,  not  the  sinners,  but  the 
righteous  to  repentance;  such  as 
invocations    to    Washington,    im- 


61 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

ploring  men  to  unsay  what  Wash- 
ington said,  and  undo  what  Wash- 
ington did. 

Neither  let  us  be  slandered 
from  our  duty  by  false  accusations 
against  us.  nor  frightened  from  it 
by  menaces  of  destruction  to  the 
Goyernment  nor  of  dungeons  to 
ourselyes.  Let  us  haye  faith  that 
riodit  makes  migfht.  and  in  that 
faith  let  us,  to  the  end.  dare  to  do 
our  duty  as  we  understand  it. 


iz 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINXOLX. 


Farewell  Address  at  the  Railroad  Station, 
Springfield,  February  n.  1561. 

f'Kh\Y  FRIENDS:  Xo  one  not 
g^Wj  in  my  situation  can  appre- 
ciate mv  feeling  Gf  sadness  at  this 
parting.  To  this  place  and  the 
kindness  of  these  people  I  owe 
everything.  Here  I  have  lived 
a  quarter  of  a  century,  and  have 
passed  from  a  young  to  an  old 
man.  Here  mv  children  have 
been  born,  and  one  is  buried.  I 
now  leave,  not  knowing  when  or 
whether  ever  I  mav  return,  with 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

a  task  before  me  greater  than  that 
which  rested  upon  Washington. 
Without  the  assistance  of  that 
Divine  Being  who  ever  attended 
him,  I  cannot  succeed.  With  that 
assistance  I  cannot  fail.  Trusting 
in  Him,  who  can  go  with  me,  and 
remain  with  you,  and  be  every- 
where for  good,  let  us  confidently 
hope  that  all  will  yet  be  well. 
To  His  care  commending  you,  as 
I  hope  in  your  prayers  you  will 
commend  me,  I  bid  you  an  affec- 
tionate farewell. 


64 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


Closing  Sections  of  First  Inaugural  Address. 
Washington,  March  4.  1861. 

fTlpHYSICALLY  speaking,  we 

H  mi  ,v 

g  cannot  separate.  \\  e  can- 
not remove  our  respective  sections 
from  each  other,  nor  build  an  im- 
passable wall  between  them.  A 
husband  and  wife  maybe  divorced, 
and  go  out  of  the  presence  and 
beyond  the  reach  of  each  other; 
but  the  different  parts  of  our 
countrv  cannot  do  this.  Thev 
cannot   but   remain   face    to   face; 

and    intercourse,    either    amicable 

-- 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

or  hostile,  must  continue  between 
them.  Is  it  impossible,  then,  to 
make  that  intercourse  more  ad- 
vantageous or  more  satisfactory 
after  separation  than  before  f  Can 
aliens  make  treaties  easier  than 
friends  can  make  laws?  Can 
treaties  be  more  faithfully  en- 
forced between  aliens  than  laws 
can  among  friends  ?  Suppose  you 
go  to  war,  you  cannot  fight  al- 
ways; and  when,  after  much  loss 
on  both  sides,  and  no  gain  on 
either,  you  cease  fighting,  the 
identical  old  questions  as  to  terms 
of  intercourse  are  again  upon  you. 
This  country,  with  its  institu- 
tions, belongs  to  the  people  who 


68 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

inhabit  it.  Whenever  they  shall 
grow  weary  of  the  existing  Gov- 
ernment they  can  exercise  their 
constitutional  right  of  amending 
it,  or  their  revolutionary  right  to 
dismember  or  overthrow  it.  I 
cannot  be  ignorant  of  the  fact 
that  many  worthy  and  patriotic 
citizens  are  desirous  of  having  the 
National  Constitution  amended. 
While  I  make  no  recommendation 
of  amendments,  I  fully  recognize 
the  rightful  authority  of  the  peo- 
ple over  the  whole  subject,  to  be 
exercised  in  either  of  the  modes 
prescribed  in  the  instrument  it- 
self; and  I  should,  under  existing 
circumstances,   favor    rather    than 

5A  69 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

oppose  a  fair  opportunity  being 
afforded  the  people  to  act  upon 
it.  I  will  venture  to  add,  that  to 
me  the  convention  mode  seems 
preferable,  in  that  it  allows  amend- 
ments to  originate  with  the  people 
themselves,  instead  of  only  per- 
mitting them  to  take  or  reject 
propositions  originated  by  others 
not  especially  chosen  for  the  pur- 
pose, and  which  might  not  be  pre- 
cisely such  as  they  would  wish 
to  either  accept  or  refuse.  I  un- 
derstand a  proposed  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution — which 
amendment,  however,  I  have  not 
seen — has    passed    Congress,    to 

the  effect  that  the  Federal  Gov- 

7o 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ernment  shall  never  interfere  with 
the  domestic  institutions  of  the 
States,  including  that  of  persons 
held  to  service.  To  avoid  mis- 
construction of  what  I  have  said, 
I  depart  from  my  purpose  not  to 
speak  of  particular  amendments 
so  far  as  to  say  that,  holding  such 
a  provision  now  to  be  implied  con- 
stitutional law,  I  have  no  objec- 
tion to  its  being  made  express 
and  irrevocable. 

The  Chief  Magistrate  derives 
all  his  authority  from  the  people, 
and  they  have  conferred  none 
upon  him  to  fix  terms  for  the 
separation  of  the  States.  The 
people    themselves    can    do    this 


71 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

also  if  they  choose;  but  the  Ex- 
ecutive, as  such,  has  nothing  to 
do  with  it.  His  duty  is  to  admin- 
ister the  present  Government  as 
it  came  to  his  hands,  and  to  trans- 
mit it,  unimpaired  by  him,  to  his 
successor. 

Why  should  there  not  be  a 
patient  confidence  in  the  ultimate 
justice  of  the  people?  Is  there 
any  better  or  equal  hope  in  the 
world?  In  our  present  differ- 
ences, is  either  party  without  faith 
of  being  in  the  right?  If  the  Al- 
mighty Ruler  of  Nations,  with  his 
eternal  truth  and  justice,  be  on 
your  side  of  the  North,  or  on 
yours  of  the  South,  that  truth  and 


72 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

that  justice  will  surely  prevail,  by 
the  judgment  of  this  great  tribunal 
of  the  American  people. 

By  the  frame  of  the  Govern- 
ment under  which  we  live,  the 
same  people  have  wisely  given 
their  public  servants  but  little 
power  for  mischief;  and  have, 
with  equal  wisdom,  provided  for 
the  return  of  that  little  to  their 
own  hands  at  very  short  intervals. 
While  the  people  retain  their  vir- 
tue and  vigilance,  no  administra- 
tion, by  any  extreme  of  wicked- 
ness or  folly,  can  very  seriously 
injure  the  Government  in  the 
short   space   of  four   years. 

My    countrymen,    one    and    all, 


73 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

think  calmly  and  well  upon  this 
whole  subject.  Nothing  valuable 
can  be  lost  by  taking  time.  If 
there  be  an  object  to  hurry  any 
of  you  in  hot  haste  to  a  step 
which  you  would  never  take  de- 
liberately, that  object  will  be  frus- 
trated by  taking  time,  but  no 
good  object  can  be  frustrated  by 
it.  Such  of  you  as  are  now  dis- 
satisfied still  have  the  old  Consti- 
tution unimpaired,  and,  on  the 
sensitive  point,  the  laws  of  your 
own  framing  under  it ;  while  the 
new  Administration  will  have  no 
immediate  power,  if  it  would,  to 
chancre    either.     If    it   were    ad- 

o 

mitted  that   you  who   are  dissat- 


74 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

ished  hold  the  right  side  in  the 
dispute,  there  still  is  no  single 
good  reason  for  precipitate  action. 
Intelligence,  patriotism,  Christian- 
ity, and  a  firm  reliance  on  Him 
who  has  never  yet  forsaken  this 
favored  land,  are  still  competent 
to  adjust,  in  the  best  way,  all  our 
present  difficulty. 

In  your  hands,  my  dissatisfied 
fellow-countrymen,  and  not  in 
mine,  is  the  momentous  issue  of 
civil  war.  The  Government  will 
not  assail  you. 

You  can  have  no  conflict  without 
being-  yourselves  the  aggressors. 
You  have  no  oath  registered  in 
heaven    to    destroy    the    Govern- 

75 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

ment;  while  /shall  have  the  most 
solemn  one  to  "preserve,  protect 
and  defend  "  it. 

I  am  loath  to  close.  We  are  not 
enemies,  but  friends.  We  must  not 
be  enemies.  Though  passion  may 
have  strained,  it  must  not  break 
our  bonds  of  affection. 

The  mystic  chord  of  memory, 
stretching  from  every  battle-field 
and  patriot  grave  to  every  living 
heart  and  hearthstone  all  over  this 
broad  land,  will  yet  swell  the  cho- 
rus of  the  Union,  when  again 
touched,  as  surely  they  will  be, 
by  the  better  angels  of  our  nature. 


76 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


Labor  and  Capital.     From  Message  to 
Congress,  December  3,  1861. 

iOW,  there  is  no  such  rela- 
tion between  capital  and 
labor  as  assumed;  nor  is  there 
any  such  thing  as  a  free  man 
being  fixed  for  life  in  the  condi- 
tion of  a  hired  laborer.  Both 
these  assumptions  are  false,  and 
all  inferences  from  them  are 
groundless. 

Labor  is  prior  to,  and  indepen- 
dent of,  capital.    Capital   is  only 

the  fruit  of  labor,  and  could  never 

77 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

have  existed  if  labor  had  not  first 
existed.  Labor  is  the  superior 
of  capital,  and  deserves  much  the 
higher  consideration.  Capital 
has  its  rights,  which  are  as  worthy 
of  protection  as  any  other  rights. 
Nor  is  it  denied  that  there  is,  and 
probably  always  will  be,  a  relation 
between  labor  and  capital  produc- 
ing mutual  benefits.  The  error 
is  in  assuming  that  the  whole 
labor  of  community  exists  within 
that  relation.  A  few  men  own 
capital,  and  those  few  avoid  labor 
themselves,  and,  with  their  capital, 
hire  or  buy  another  few  to  labor 
for  them.  A  large  majority  be- 
long   to    neither    class  —  neither 

78 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

work  for  others,  nor  have  others 
working  for  them.  In  most  of 
the  Southern  States,  a  majority  of 
the  whole  people  of  all  colors  are 
neither  slaves  nor  masters ;  while 
in  the  Northern,  a  large  majority 
are  neither  hirers  nor  hired.  Men, 
with  their  families,— wives,  sons, 
and  daughters, —  work  for  them- 
selves, on  their  farms,  in  their 
houses,  and  in  their  shops,  taking 
the  whole  product  to  themselves, 
and  asking  no  favors  of  capital  on 
the  one  hand,  nor  of  hired  laborers 
or  slaves  on  the  other.  It  is  not 
forgotten  that  a  considerable  num- 
ber of  persons  mingle  their  own 
labor  with  capital, —  that  is,  they 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

labor  with  their  own  hands,  and 
also  buy  or  hire  others  to  labor 
for  them ;  but  this  is  only  a  mixed, 
and  not  a  distinct  class.  No  prin- 
ciple stated  is  disturbed  by  the 
existence  of  this  mixed  class. 

Again,  as  has  already  been 
said,  there  is  not  of  necessity  any 
such  thing  as  the  free  hired  la- 
borer being  fixed  to  that  condition 
for  life.  Many  independent  men 
everywhere  in  these  States,  a  few 
years  back  in  their  lives,  were 
hired  laborers.  The  prudent, 
penniless  beginner  in  the  world 
labors  for  wages  a  while,  saves  a 
surplus  with  which  to  buy  tools  or 
land  for  himself,  then  labors  on  his 


82 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

own  account  another  while,  and 
at  length  hires  another  new  be- 
ginner  to  help  him.  This  is  the 
just,  and  generous,  and  prosper- 
ous system,  which  opens  the  way 
to  all,  gives  hope  to  all,  and  con- 
sequent energy,  and  progress,  and 
improvement  of  condition  to  all. 
No  men  living  are  more  worthy 
to  be  trusted  than  those  who  toil 
up  from  poverty  —  none  less  in- 
clined to  take  or  touch  aught 
which  they  have  not  honestly 
earned.  Let  them  beware  of  sur- 
rendering a  political  power  which 
they  already  possess,  and  which, 
if  surrendered,  will  surely  be  used 

to  close  the  door  of  advancement 

83 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

against  such  as  they,  and  to  fix 
new  disabilities  and  burdens  upon 
them,  till  all  of  liberty  shall  be 
lost. 


84 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


From  Letter  to  the  Secretary  of  State, 
June  28,  1862. 

EXPECT  to  maintain  this 
contest  until  successful,  or 
till  I  die,  or  am  conquered,  or  my 
term  expires,  or  Congress  or  the 
country  forsakes  me. 


6a 


85 


SELECTION'S    FROM    THE    WORKS 


Letter  to  Horace  Greeley, 
August  22,  1862. 


glEAR  SIR:  I  have  just 
jfjjgfjil  read  yours  of  the  19th, 
addressed  to  myself  through  the 
New- York    Tribune. 

If  there  be  in  it  any  statements 
or  assumptions  of  fact  which  I  may 
know  to  be  erroneous,  I  do  not, 
now  and  here,  controvert  them. 

If  there  be  in  it  anv  inferences 
which  I  may  believe  to  be  falsely 
drawn,  I  do  not,  now  and  here, 
argue  against  them. 


86 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

If  there  be  perceptible  in  it  an 
impatient  and  dictatorial  tone,  I 
waive  it  in  deference  to  an  old 
friend,  whose  heart  I  have  always 
supposed  to  be  right. 

As  to  the  policy  I  "seem  to  be 
pursuing,"  as  you  say.  I  have  not 
meant  to  leave  any  one  in  doubt. 

I  would  save  the  Union.  I  would 
save  it  in  the  shortest  way  under 
the  Constitution. 

The  sooner  the  national  author- 
ity can  be  restored,  the  nearer  the 
Union  will  be  the  Union  as  it  was. 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not 

save  the  Union  unless  they  could 

at  the   same   time  save  slavery,   I 

do  not  aoree  with  them. 

87 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

If  there  be  those  who  would  not 
save  the  Union  unless  they  could 
at  the  same  time  destroy  slavery, 
I  do  not  agree  with  them. 

My  paramount  object  in  this 
struggle  is  to  save  the  Union,  and 
is  not  either  to  save  or  destroy 
slavery. 

If  I  could  save  the  Union  with- 
out freeing  any  slave,  I  would  do 
it;  and  if  I  could  save  it  by  free- 
ing all  the  slaves,  I  would  do  it; 
and  if  I  could  save  it  by  freeing 
some  and  leaving  others  alone,  I 
would  also  do  that. 

What  I  do  about  slavery  and  the 
colored  race,  I  do  because  I  be- 
lieve it  helps  to  save  the  Union; 


83 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

and  what  I  forbear,  I  forbear  be- 
cause I  do  not  believe  it  would 
help  to  save  the  Union. 

I  shall  do  less  whenever  I  shall 
believe  what  I  am  doing  hurts  the 
cause,  and  I  shall  do  more  when- 
ever I  shall  believe  doing  more 
will  help  the  cause. 

I  shall  try  to  correct  errors  when 
shown  to  be  errors,  and  I  shall 
adopt  new  views  so  fast  as  they 
shall  appear  to  be  true  views. 

I  have  here  stated  my  purpose 
according  to  my  view  of  official 
duty;  and  I  intend  no  modification 
of  my  oft-expressed  personal  wish 
that  all  men  everywhere  could  be 

free. 

89 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


Closing  Paragraph  of  Message  to  Congress, 
December  i,  1862. 

[ELLOW-CITIZENS,  we 
cannot  escape  history. 
We  of  this  Congress  and  this 
Administration  will  be  remem- 
bered in  spite  of  ourselves.  No 
personal  significance  or  insignifi- 
cance can  spare  one  or  another 
of  us.  The  fiery  trial  through 
which  we  pass  will  light  us  down 
in  honor  or  dishonor  to  the  latest 
generation.     We  say  that  we  are 

for    the    Union.     The   world    will 

90 


OF    ABRAHAM    LIN'COLX. 

not  forget  that  we  say  this.  We 
know  how  to  save  the  Union. 
The  world  knows  we  do  know 
how  to  save  it.  We — even  we 
here  —  hold  the  power  and  bear 
the  responsibility.  In  giving  free- 
dom to  the  slave,  we  assure 
freedom  to  the  free. —  honorable 
alike  in  what  we  give  and  what 
we  preserve.  We  shall  nobly 
save  or  meanly  lose  the  last  best 
hope  of  earth.  Other  means  may 
succeed ;  this  could  not,  cannot 
fail.  The  way  is  plain,  peaceful, 
generous,  just, —  a  way  which,  if 
followed,  the  world  will  forever 
applaud,   and    God    must    forever 

bless. 

91 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


Letter  to  the  Working-men  of  Manchester, 
England,  January  19,  1863. 


e~t  1  f  1  f  1 1  g| 

II «  HAVE  the  honor  to  ac- 
pi  jjl  knowledge  the  receipt  of 
the  address  and  resolutions  which 
you  sent  me  on  the  eve  of  the  new 
year.  When  I  came  on  the  4th 
of  March,  1861,  through  a  free  and 
constitutional  election,  to  preside 
in  the  Government  of  the  United 
States,  the  country  was  found  at 
the  verge  of  civil  war.  Whatever 
might  have  been  the  cause,  or 
whosesoever  the  fault,  one  duty 
paramount  to   all  others  was  be- 


92 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

fore  me, — namely,  to  maintain  and 
preserve  at  once  the  Constitution 
and  the  integrity  of  the  Federal 
Republic.  A  conscientious  pur- 
pose to  perform  this  duty  is  the 
key  to  all  the  measures  of  ad- 
ministration which  have  been,  and 
to  all  which  will  hereafter  be,  pur- 
sued. Under  our  frame  of  gov- 
ernment and  my  official  oath,  I 
could  not  depart  from  this  purpose 
if  I  would.  It  is  not  always  in  the 
power  of  governments  to  enlarge 
or  restrict  the  scope  of  moral  re- 
sults which  follow  the  policies  that 
they  may  deem  it  necessary,  for 
the  public  safety,  from  time  to 
time    to   adopt. 

95 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

I  have  understood  well  that  the 
duty  of  self-preservation  rests  sole- 
ly with  the  American  people.  But 
I  have  at  the  same  time  been  aware 
that  favor  or  disfavor  of  foreign 
nations  might  have  a  material  in- 
fluence in  enlarging  or  prolonging 
the  struggle  with  disloyal  men  in 
which  the  country  is  engaged. 
A  fair  examination  of  history  has 
served  to  authorize  a  belief  that 
the  past  actions  and  influences  of 
the  United  States  were  generally 
regarded  as  having  been  beneficial 
toward  mankind.  I  have,  there- 
fore, reckoned  upon  the  forbear- 
ance of  nations.        Circumstances 

—  to    some  of   which   you    kindly 

96 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

allude — induced  me  especially  to 
expect  that  if  justice  and  good 
faith  should  be  practised  by  the 
United  States,  they  would  encoun- 
ter  no  hostile  influence  on  the  part 
of  Great  Britain.  It  is  now  a 
pleasant  duty  to  acknowledge  the 
demonstration  you  haye  giyen  of 
your  desire  that  a  spirit  of  amity 
and  peace  toward  this  country  may 
preyail  in  the  councils  of  your 
Queen,  who  is  respected  and  es- 
teemed in  your  own  country  only 

*  4  0 

more  than  she  is  by  the  kindred 
nation  which  has  its  home  on  this 
side  of  the  Atlantic. 

I  know  and  deeply  deplore  the 
sufferings  which  the  working-men 

7  97 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

of  Manchester,  and  in  all  Eu- 
rope, are  called  to  endure  in  this 
crisis.  It  has  been  often  and 
studiously  represented  that  the  at- 
tempt to  overthrow  this  Govern- 
ment, which  was  built  upon  the 
foundation  of  human  rights,  and  to 
substitute  for  it  one  which  should 
rest  exclusively  on  the  basis  of 
human  slavery,  was  likely  to  obtain 
the  favor  of  Europe.  Through  the 
action  of  our  disloyal  citizens,  the 
working-men  of  Europe  have  been 
subjected  to  severe  trials,  for  the 
purpose  of  forcing  their  sanction 
to  that  attempt.  Under  the  cir- 
cumstances,  I   cannot  but  regard 

your  decisive  utterances  upon  the 

98 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

question  as  an  instance  of  sublime 
Christian  heroism,  which  has  not 
been  surpassed  in  any  age  or  in 
any  country.  It  is  indeed  an  en- 
ergetic and  reinspiring  assurance 
of  the  inherent  power  of  truth,  and 
of  the  ultimate  and  universal  tri- 
umph of  justice,  humanity,  and 
freedom.  I  do  not  doubt  that  the 
sentiments  you  have  expressed 
will  be  sustained  by  your  great 
nation,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  I 
have  no  hesitation  in  assuring  you 
that  they  will  excite  admiration, 
esteem,  and  the  most  reciprocal 
feelings  of  friendship  among  the 
American  people.  I  hail  this  in- 
terchange of  sentiment,  therefore, 

99 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

as  an  augury  that  whatever  else 
may  happen,  whatever  misfortune 
may  befall  your  country  or  my 
own,  the  peace  and  friendship 
which  now  exist  between  the  two 
nations  will  be,  as  it  shall  be  my 
desire  to  make  them,  perpetual. 


IOO 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


Closing  Paragraph  of  Letter  to 
James  C.  Conkling,  August  26,  1863. 

EACE  does  not  appear  so 
distant  as  it  did.  I  hope 
it  will  come  soon,  and  come  to  stay ; 
and  so  come  as  to  be  worth  the 
keeping  in  all  future  time.  It  will 
then  have  been  proved  that,  among 
free  men,  there  can  be  no  success- 
ful appeal  from  the  ballot  to  the 
bullet;  and  that  they  who  take 
such  appeal  are  sure  to  lose  their 
case  and  pay  the  cost.  And  then 
there  will  be  some  black  men  who 

IOI 
7A 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

can  remember  that  with  silent 
tongue,  and  clenched  teeth,  and 
steady  eye,  and  well-poised  bayo- 
net, they  have  helped  mankind  on 
to  this  great  consummation  ;  while 
I  fear  there  will  be  some  white 
ones  unable  to  forget  that  with  ma- 
lignant heart  and  deceitful  speech 
they  strove  to  hinder  it. 

Still,  let  us  not  be  over-sanguine 
of  a  speedy  final  triumph.  Let  us 
be  quite  sober.  Let  us  diligently 
apply  the  means,  never  doubting 
that  a  just  God,  in  his  own  good 
time,  will  give  us  the  rightful  result. 


1 02 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


From  Letter  to  Drake  and  others, 
October  5,   1863. 

MONG  the  reasons  given, 
enough  of  suffering  and 
wrong  to  Union  men  is  certainly, 
and  I  suppose  truly,  stated.  Yet 
the  whole  case,  as  presented,  fails 
to  convince  me  that  General  Scho- 
field,  or  the  enrolled  militia,  is 
responsible  for  that  suffering  and 
wrong.  The  whole  can  be  ex- 
plained on  a  more  charitable  and, 
as  I  think,  a  more  rational  hy- 
pothesis.    We  are   in   Civil  War. 

In  such   cases    there  always  is    a 

103 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

main  question ;  but  in  this  case 
that  question  is  a  perplexing  com- 
pound—  Union  and  Slavery.  It 
thus  becomes  a  question  not  of 
two  sides  merely,  but  at  least  four 
sides,  even  among  those  who  are 
for  the  Union,  saying  nothing  of 
those  who  are  against  it. 

Thus,  those  who  are  for  the 
Union  with,  but  not  without^  slav- 
ery—  those  for  it  without,  but  not 
with — those  for  it  with  or  with- 
out, but  prefer  it  with — and  those 
for  it  with  or  without,  but  prefer  it 
without.  Among  these  again  is  a 
subdivision  of  those  who  are  for 
gradual,  but  not  for  immediate, 
and  those  who  are  for  immediate, 


104 


OF   ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

but  not  for  gradual,  extinction  of 
slavery. 

It  is  easy  to  conceive  that  all 
these  shades  of  opinion,  and  even 
more,  may  be  sincerely  entertained 
by  honest  and  truthful  men.  Yet, 
all  being  for  the  Union,  by  reason 
of  these  differences  each  will  pre- 
fer a  different  way  of  sustaining 
the  Union.  At  once  sincerity  is 
questioned,  and  motives  are  as- 
sailed. Actual  war  coming,  blood 
grows  hot,  and  blood  is  spilled. 
Thought  is  forced  from  old  channels 
into  confusion.  Deception  breeds 
and  thrives.  Confidence  dies,  and 
universal  suspicion  reigns.  Each 
man    feels    an  impulse  to  kill  his 


105 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

neighbor,  lest  he  be  first  killed  by 
him.  Revenge  and  retaliation  fol- 
low. And  all  this,  as  before  said, 
may  be  among  honest  men  only. 
But  this  is  not  all.  Every  foul  bird 
comes  abroad,  and  every  dirty 
reptile  rises  up.  These  add  crime 
to  confusion.  Strong  measures 
deemed  indispensable,  but  harsh  at 
best,  such  men  make  worse  by  mal- 
administration. Murders  for  old 
grudges,  and  murders  for  pelf, 
proceed  under  any  cloak  that  will 
best  cover  for  the  occasion.  These 
causes  amply  account  for  what  has 
occurred  in  Missouri,  without  as- 
cribing it  to  the  weakness  or 
wickedness  of  any  general. 


106 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 


H 


Speech  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylvania, 
November  19,  1863. 


£ 


Bl 


)URSCORE  and  seven 
years  ago  our  fathers 
brought  forth  on  this  continent 
a  new  nation,  conceived  in  liberty, 
and  dedicated  to  the  proposition 
that  all  men  are  created  equal.  Now 
we  are  engaged  in  a  great  civil 
war,  testing  whether  that  nation, 
or  any  nation  so  conceived  and  so 
dedicated,  can  long  endure.  We 
are  met  on  a  great  battle-field  of 

that  war.     We  have  come  to  dedi- 

107 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

cate  a  portion  of  that  field  as  a 
final  resting-place  for  those  who 
here  gave  their  lives  that  that  na- 
tion might  live.  It  is  altogether 
fitting  and  proper  that  we  should 
do  this.  But,  in  a  larger  sense, 
we  cannot  dedicate — we  cannot 
consecrate  —  we  cannot  hallow  — 
this  ground.  The  brave  men,  liv- 
ing and  dead,  who  struggled  here, 
have  consecrated  it,  far  above  our 
poor  power  to  add  or  detract. 
The  world  will  little  note,  nor  long 
remember,  what  we  say  here,  but 
it  can  never  forget  what  they  did 
here.  It  is  for  us,  the  living,  rather, 
to  be  dedicated  here  to  the  unfin- 
ished work  which  they  who  fought 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

here  have  thus  far  so  nobly  ad- 
vanced. It  is  rather  for  us  to  be 
here  dedicated  to  the  great  task 
remaining  before  us  —  that  from 
these  honored  dead  we  take  in- 
creased devotion  to  that  cause  for 
which  they  gave  the  last  full  mea- 
sure of  devotion  —  that  we  here 
highly  resolve  that  these  dead  shall 
not  have  died  in  vain  —  that  this 
nation,  under  God,  shall  have  a 
new  birth  of  freedom  —  and  that 
government  of  the  people,  by  the 
people,  and  for  the  people  shall 
not  perish  from  the  earth. 


in 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 


Second  Inaugural  Address,  March  4, 1865. 

ELLOW-COUNTRY- 
MEN:  At  this  second  ap- 
pearing to  take  the  oath  of  the  Pres- 
idential office,  there  is  less  occasion 
for  an  extended  address  than  there 
was  at  the  first.  Then,  a  statement, 
somewhat  in  detail,  of  a  course  to 
be  pursued  seemed  fitting  and 
proper.  Now,  at  the  expiration  of 
four  years,  during  which  public 
declarations  have  been  constantly 
called  forth  on  every  point  and 
phase  of  the  great  contest  which 


112 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

still  absorbs  the  attention  and  en- 
grosses the  energies  of  the  nation, 
little  that  is  new  could  be  pre- 
sented. 

The  progress  of  our  arms,  upon 
which  all  else  chiefly  depends,  is  as 
well  known  to  the  public  as  to  my- 
self; and  it  is,  I  trust,  reasonably 
satisfactory  and  encouraging  to  all. 
With  high  hope  for  the  future,  no 
prediction  in  regard  to  it  is  ven- 
tured. 

On  the  occasion  corresponding 
to  this  four  years  ago,  all  thoughts 
were  anxiously  directed  to  an  im- 
pending civil  war.  All  dreaded  it — 
all  sought  to  avert  it.  While  the 
inaugural  address  was  being  de- 


IJ3 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

livered  from  this  place,  devoted 
altogether  to  saving  the  Union 
without  war,  insurgent  agents  were 
in  the  city  seeking  to  destroy  it 
without  war — seeking  to  dissolve 
the  Union,  and  divide  effects,  by 
negotiation.  Both  parties  depre- 
cated war ;  but  one  of  them  would 
make  war  rather  than  let  the  na- 
tion survive ;  and  the  other  would 
accept  war  rather  than  let  it  perish. 
And  the  war  came. 

One  eighth  of  the  whole  popula- 
tion were  colored  slaves,  not  dis- 
tributed generally  over  the  Union, 
but  localized  in  the  Southern  part 
of  it.  These  slaves  constituted 
a  peculiar  and   powerful  interest. 


ii4 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

All  knew  that  this  interest  was, 
somehow,  the  cause  of  the  war. 
To  strengthen,  perpetuate,  and  ex- 
tend this  interest  was  the  object 
for  which  the  insurgents  would  rend 
the  Union  even  by  war ;  while  the 
Government  claimed  no  right  to 
do  more  than  to  restrict  the  terri- 
torial enlargement  of  it. 

Neither  party  expected  for  the 
war  the  magnitude  or  the  duration 
which  it  has  already  attained. 
Neither  anticipated  that  the  cause 
of  the  conflict  might  cease  with, 
or  even  before,  the  conflict  itself 
should  cease.  Each  looked  for  an 
easier  triumph,  and  a  result  less 
fundamental  and  astounding. 


"5 


SELECTIONS    FROM    THE    WORKS 

Both  read  the  same  Bible,  and 
pray  to  the  same  God;  and  each 
invokes  his  aid  against  the  other. 
It  may  seem  strange  that  any  men 
should  dare  to  ask  a  just  God's 
assistance  in  wringing  their  bread 
from  the  sweat  of  other  men's  faces; 
but  let  us  judge  not,  that  we  be  not 
judged.  The  prayers  of  both  could 
not  be  answered  —  that  of  neither 
has  been  answered  fully.  The 
Almighty  has  his  own  purposes. 
"Woe  unto  the  world  because  of 
offenses !  for  it  must  needs  be  that 
offenses  come ;  but  woe  to  that 
man  by  whom  the  offense  cometh." 
If  we  shall  suppose  that  American 
slavery  is   one  of  those   offenses, 


116 


OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

which  in  the  providence  of  God 
must  needs  come,  but  which,  hav- 
ting  continued  through  his  appoint- 
ed time,  he  now  wills  to  remove, 
and  that  he  gives  to  both  North 
and  South  this  terrible  war,  as 
the  woe  due  to  those  by  whom 
the  offense  came,  shall  we  discern 
therein  any  departure  from  those 
divine  attributes  which  the  believ- 
ers in  a  living  God  always  ascribe 
to  him?  Fondly  do  we  hope  — 
fervently  do  we  pray  —  that  this 
mighty  scourge  of  war  may  speed- 
ily pass  away.  Yet,  if  God  wills 
that  it  continue  until  all  the  wealth 
piled  by  the  bondman's  two  hun- 
dred and  fifty  years  of  unrequited 

117 


WORKS    OF    ABRAHAM    LINCOLN. 

toil  shall  be  sunk,  and  until  every 
drop  of  blood  drawn  with  the  lash 
shall  be  paid  by  another  drawn 
with  the  sword,  as  was  said  three 
thousand  years  ago,  so,  still  it 
must  be  said,  "The  judgments  of 
the  Lord  are  true  and  righteous 
altogether." 

With  malice  toward  none  ;  with 
charity  for  all ;  with  firmness  in  the 
right,  as  God  gives  us  to  see  the 
right,  let  us  strive  on  to  finish  the 
work  we  are  in ;  to  bind  up  the  na- 
tion's wounds  ;  to  care  for  him  who 
shall  have  borne  the  battle,  and  for 
his  widow,  and  his  orphans  —  to  do 
all  which  may  achieve  and  cherish 
a  just  and  a  lasting  peace  among 
ourselves  and  with  all  nations. 

118 


Lincoln's  Tomb  at  Springfield. 


■ 


